1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to an apparatus for the continuous high-speed orientation of plastic and other types of bottles. More particularly, this invention relates to a mechanism that converts randomly oriented bottles that have long to short lateral axes of from about 1.5:1 to 1:1 and short lateral axis to neck diameter dimensions of 1.15 to 1 or greater to oriented bottles having the neck thereof in the up position.
2. Description of the Prior Art
An early machine to orient objects having unsymmetrical ends is represented by U.S. Pat. No. 620,350. This invention utilized a series of cams to arrange bullets in the same orientation for greasing. Later, in 1920, U.S. Pat. No. 1,340,432 described a method for dropping bullets through a tube which was fed from a wheel which would only pick up bullets oriented in a single direction from a bed of randomly oriented bullets.
In 1957, U.S. Pat. No. 2,815,113 described a method for orienting bottles by pushing the randomly oriented bottles through a trap which would only allow one orientation to pass.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,101,832, issued in 1963, described a bottle-orienting machine which utilized a vibrating rack ascending around a cylindrical bowl cooperating with various arms and baffles to achieve orientation.
In 1967, U.S. Pat. No. 3,339,702 described a bottle-orienting apparatus which comprised a series of oppositely moving belts to aid in the orientation.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,631,955, issued in 1972, details a means for detecting a neck-down bottle, grasping such bottle and inverting it to a neck-up position.
An apparatus for conveying bottles, lying down in a position at right angles to the route of travel, over a gradually ascending rail positioned to contact the bottle in the middle, between the bottom and top, and relying on the greater weight in the bottom half to tip the bottle neck-up to one side or the other was described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,722,659, issued in 1973.
An apparatus for rectifying two-piece hard gelatin capsules was described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,817,423, issued in 1974. This invention comprised a mechanism wherein randomly oriented capsules were fed through delivery tubes into a rectifying plate. In the rectifying plate the capsules were collected in holes having a diameter greater than the larger diameter of the capsules. While disposed in such hole, the capsules contacted a means which turned all of the capsule bodies to the outside in a slot having a width slightly less than the smallest diameter of the capsule bodies.
All of the capsules, in the invention of U.S. Pat. No. 3,817,423, are held in a horizontal position by the friction fit between the capsule cap and the walls of the vertical slot between the holes in which the capsules repose in the rectifying plate and the outboard circumference thereof. After the capsules are all oriented body out, a gradually descending guide bar disposed immediately outboard of the rectifying plate contacts the capsule bodies and all the capsules are turned body down. Another means contacts the capsules and they are returned to the holes in the rectifying plate from which they are discharged by gravity.
Another U.S. Pat. No. 3,948,386, issued in 1976, described a mechanism for orienting plastic bottles, or the like, by means of vertically reciprocating push rods mounted in a bowl in which randomly oriented bottles were located.
Prior art mechanisms for orienting randomly oriented bottles are generally cumbersome and mechanically complex. These machines are expensive to construct and operate, and the complex mechanisms are subject to frequent maintenance needs.
Accordingly, it is an object of this invention to provide a means for the high-speed orientation of plastic and other types of bottles that is mechanically simple, relatively inexpensive to construct, economical in operation, and virtually free of maintenance requirements.